COVERING PUGET SOUND NAVAL NEWS FOR BREMERTON | BANGOR | KEYPORT
NAVY NEWS Kitsap
VOLUME 1, NO. 12 | 17 JUNE 2011
www.kitsapnavynews.com
Furloughs a glitch, not a trend By GREG SKINNER
Kitsap Navy News
Hundreds of Kitsap County defense industry workers will take next Friday off without pay as the contract company running most of Naval Base Kitsap’s day-to-day operations adjusts its workforce expenses for one day. EJB Facilities Services General Manager Robert Parker Tuesday said the furlough day is an adjustment to a slowed Navy workload resulting from the federal budget showdown
SEE FURLOUGHS | PAGE 8
A civilian employee at Naval Magazine Indian Island communicates with a crane operator high above while loading hundreds of shipping containers of ammunition and explosives above the M/V American Turn June 15, 2011. GREG SKINNER/KITSAP NAVY NEWS
Munitions on the move Fast-moving ammo distribution system developed after Gulf War, tested and used at Indian Island By GREG SKINNER
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Kitsap Navy News
undreds of tons of munitions passed down SR 3 recently as part of a real world training exercise based on lessons learned during Gulf War I when troops arrived well ahead of the bullet and bomb supply. The exercise, Turbo CADS 2011, is the result of past Department of Defense lessons learned, said commander of Naval Magazine Indian Island Cmdr. Gary Martin. The acronym stands for “containerized ammunition distribution system” and the turbo means just that, “fast,” he said. In real terms, DOD copied the effective methods of the commercial shipping industry and created an assembly line-like system of standard sized containers stacked by computer-aided layout programs into traditional cargo ships under contract to U.S. Navy Sealift Command. During week one of the two-week exercise, a mix of Army
National Guard and Reserve transportation soldiers drove 475 shipping containers full of bullets, bombs, missiles and inert components from the the railhead at Naval Base Kitsap Bangor overland to the Navy’s loading pier at Indian Island. Once fully loaded with national ordinance the container ship M/V American Tern is bound for Army, Navy, Air Force, Navy and Marine bases and installations in South Korea, Japan and Guam. Tuesday, crews comprised of civilian defense workers and the Navy personnel at the naval magazine used the island’s 100,000-pound crane, “Big Blue,” and a much-smaller ship’s crane to load 136 containers during one shift. The remainder of the powerful load of munitions will be stowed by Friday when Martin expects to call the exercise a success and complete. “Another successful mission for Indian Island,” he said. “This is the standard [now].” The loading of munitions is the typical job for Indian Island. They can load any combat ship in the fleet right at the pier with its available 55-foot draft – nearly 20-feet deeper than the aircraft carrier John C Stennis requires. But, the recent loads during Turbo CADS represents a “massive” push of munitions out from Washington state to the “tip of the spear,” said Martin. With the training exercise actually loading and sending real
SEE AMMO | PAGE 8
THIS EDITION Navy sees Facebook as frontier ...................pg. 2 Deploying again, older kids change game .........pg. 4 USS John C. Stennis returns ready ......................pg. 5 Two Marines earn Navy Cross for valor ................pg. 6
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